hawkeyefan
Legend
Why would only one person be familiar with the people or situation? They've engaged those people and the situation as a group and would typically all be equally familiar.
They may or may not be based on the examples I gave. Like, if you’re dealing with a thieves’ guild, do you really think having a rogue do the talking is the same as having the naive acolyte cleric do it? If you’re trying to get jobs on a merchant caravan, maybe have your fighter with the merchant guard background talk to the quartermaster rather than the tiefling warlock who doesn’t shut up about Mephistopheles.
Again, it’s about leveraging strengths in the game that suit the fiction. And it in no way blocks roleplaying. It’s actively using character elements.
Now you're just moving the goal posts. If only one person speaks the language, yes that one person will have to do all the talking. Thing is, it's just as likely to be the guy with the -1 charisma modifier as it is the party face. This is not the same situation as you were describing above.
I’d say Languages Spoken is a social mechanic, so I’m not moving goalposts so much as I’m just offering another example. You’re right…it may be the guy with the crappy charisma. So do we let him speak for the party, or do we rely on him to translate? Or maybe the cleric can cast speak languages…but is it worth the spell slot to get a +3 on this roll rather than the -1.
None of which are a "party face" situation.
You seem to have assumed this is what I meant when what I said was leveraging strengths. That doesn’t all boil down to having one PC who is the face of the party. Although I think that having someone fill that role by default is pretty common. But it really depends on what’s happening in the fiction.
We can come up with exceptions to the rule all day long. Those exceptions don't change into anything else but exceptions. Typically when the group is engaged socially, it's not going to make sense for only one person to do all the talking.
I think it happens often enough. Or that one person does a good chunk of it. And again, I never said that this should all be the face. I talked about leveraging strengths.
It's very situation dependent. Some of it will be just talking with no rolls. Other times there will be rolls made by different individuals. I will be roleplaying the lord and they can guess at the bonds, etc., but I'm not going to just tell the players what those are. Yes, I have my NPCs act in accordance to their beliefs. If the lord is talking to 5 PCs and one was a beggar and the lord knows it, he's probably going to avoid talking to that PC, even if it's the party face. There are tons of variables involved. Many more than the ones you just listed.
So you don’t use some of the actual social mechanics of 5e? Finding out a Trait, Ideal, Bond, or Flaw is an action the PCs can take. You don’t allow that?
But you do call for rolls sometimes, but not others? Backgrounds may matter, but they may not?
I agree a lot of these things would be situational, but I’m not getting any kind of sense of how a social scene would play at your table.
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